


All Things Leave Me (The Boys are Back in Town Remix)

by sevendeadlyfun



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-01
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-21 12:43:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1550906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevendeadlyfun/pseuds/sevendeadlyfun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“It’s Sunnydale,” he tells her, grasping at the hem of her skirt before she can witch herself away. “You can’t leave me out of this.”</i> Xander returns to the ruins of Sunnydale following the rise of Twilight. You can't go home again, but that won't stop a Champion from trying. Comics canon compliant through S8, <span class="u">The Last Gleaming</span>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Things Leave Me (The Boys are Back in Town Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [likeadeuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Anyone Can Tell](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27944) by [likeadeuce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/pseuds/likeadeuce). 



“It’s Sunnydale,” he tells her, grasping at the hem of her skirt before she can witch herself away. “You can’t leave me out of this.”

He looks over his shoulder, at Faith and Dawn and Giles, and says, “Take us home”.

 

****

Buffy races off, with Faith in hot pursuit. Somewhere under the wreckage of their city, she’s fighting for them. Defending the world again against an unspeakable horror. Possibly with Angel. Or against him. That guy changes sides so many times Xander wants to get him a set of jerseys so they’ll know when he’s playing as home or away.

Still, he never thought he’d come home again. Or as home as a set of crudely dug tunnels can get. He bumps into Giles, feels Dawn bump into him. They’re lost.

“Look, “ Willow says, waving a very pointy index finger in the direction of a big pile of rubble, “that’s the Espresso Pump. We’re going the wrong way. We should be headed up this road, not down it!”

“Yes, Willow, “ Giles replies briskly, “ that would make absolute sense if the town had collapsed in some sort of orderly fashion but as you can see, it did not. Now, I fail to see how pretending we can get our bearings is helping. We’re just going to have to wander around until we find what we’re looking for.”

“Do you even know what we’re looking for?” Dawn asks, folding her arms across her chest.

“Of course,” Giles responds. “A trail of demon bodies. It’s the best way to find a Slayer.”

“Or, “ he adds, turning away, “ to find a much larger demon you have no chance of defeating.”

“Glad we’re looking on the bright side, “ Dawn mutters.

Giles is right. Whatever big ugly they’re looking for is probably holed up in what’s left of the Hellmouth but they’ve got almost no chance of finding the high school. Xander can’t tell an Espresso Pump from a Doublemeat Palace in all this wreckage.

If he’s honest, he can barely remember what the school looked like before they blew it to hell – the second time. He knows he can’t remember what it looked it back when it contained the sum total of his hopes and fears. That life, that Xander – it’s as dead and buried as Sunnydale.

_Oh please. You've survived vampires, hyena-possession, bug ladies, and vengeance demons. I really don't think a little reborn Hellmouth is going to do you in._

He turns his head – oh for the days of peripheral vision – trying to follow the voice. Dawn puts a hand on his shoulder, gives him a little shake. He meets her gaze and shrugs.

“Ghosts, “ he says with a small smile. “Town’s always been full of’em. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised they stuck around after the big finale.”

_Well, some of us have a sense of civic responsibility._

Xander closes his eye.

“Xander?” Dawn says, her hand back on his shoulder. “You okay?”

He can only nod. He doesn’t really think he’s okay but there’s no reason for anyone to panic. On a Sunnydale scale, hearing the voice of your dead ex-girlfriend is pretty tame.

“Like I said.” he shrugs. “Ghosts.”

“Literal ghosts?” Dawn is from Sunnydale, too.

“Maybe. Just hard being back here, I guess. Lots of memories.”

“Yeah, “ Dawn agrees, reaching for his hand. “Memories. Also possibly real live dead people trying to talk to you.”

“Also possibly.” He smiles.

 

The tunnels never get wider or brighter. Giles and Willow guide them around crushed buildings, flattened houses – Willow’s hands light up with a bright green light that illuminates just enough of the destroyed city to be creepy and not enough to be helpful. He remembers the first time he chased Buffy underground, looking to do something – anything- to help his friends.

_It must be really hard when all your friends have, like, superpowers; Slayer, werewolf, witches, vampires, mystical keys made of crazy extradimensional energy._

“I know where we are.” Xander turns, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “This is the dress shop.”

“The dress shop?” Dawn grins back at him. “How do you know where to purchase formal wear?”

“Hey, “ Xander protests. “I’ll have you know I am very in to formal wear. Plus, Cordy – “

He doesn’t finish the sentence. He promised to keep her secret. She’s gone - sacrificed to a higher power because if Angel has any marketable skills then destroying the lives of the women Xander loves has to be at the top of his resume – but her secrets should remain safe.

If he’s being fair, the same skills are probably at the top of his own resume. But he hates being fair where Angel is concerned.

“Cordy?” Dawn furrows her eyebrows. “I know you guys had a few odd dates but I didn’t know they included trips to look at gowns.”

Xander looks away, avoiding the question Dawn hasn’t asked because he isn’t sure how to answer it. Giles and Willow have conjured something green and sparkly just ahead– presumably that explains the hushed voices and wild gestures. Xander’s seen Willow’s version of GPS a few times and it’s pretty miraculously accurate. He wonders if she’s homing in on Buffy or Spike. If he were a betting man and had anything to be with, he’d say the dead outnumber the living down here, so it’s probably Buffy. 

Besides, everyone had odd dates on the Hellmouth. How many times did Buffy woo a boy vampire by fighting demons in a cemetery? So he and Cordy made out in a few closets. By Sunnydale standards, that's practically quaint. 

“I never really got to apologize.” He doesn’t turn around. The sparks shooting from Willow’s fingers turn from green to gold and he wonders if you can go blind from staring at magical GPS sparkles. “After the whole thing with me and Willow in the factory. I never got to apologize.”

“It didn’t seem to matter much,” he continues, closing his eye against the brightness. “We went back to our separate corners, like we’d never been…together. She was chasing after Wesley and then Angel and then she was gone and I never got a chance to tell her how sorry I was for – everything, I guess.”

He can feel Dawn’s hand slide in to his own and the warmth of her cheek against his shoulder. He can remember when other, younger women leaned against him – for support, for love. He can’t remember ever being very good at providing either.

“She loved you. You know that.” Dawn’s words should be comforting.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I do know that. But I don’t know if she ever knew how much she meant to me.”

_I assume that offer to fight for my honor stands?_

“Guys! We’ve figured out – Buffy’s at the high school!” Willow waves them forward, a bright smiling lighting her face.

“I always knew I’d die in that damn school, “ Xander says softly. “Sort of thought it would be before the whole town was destroyed by an ancient monolithic evil, though.”

 “Well,” Dawn says, patting his arm gently, “at least you got the location right. That’s something.”

Not hard to guess where a Sunnydale boy will meet his final end. If it’s not the high school, it’ll be the Bronze- unless it’s one of the five cemeteries or the Magic Shop. Now that he thinks of it, there are plenty of places in Sunnydale to die.

It’s a very cheering thought in the sense that not only is he going to die but he might die in any number of hometown hangouts.

He can still hear her. He thinks more and more that she’s really here – some part of her, anyways. He hopes she can hear him, too, or hear his thoughts or whatever higher beings do these days to communicate with boys from Sunnydale. He thinks about her, the her he remembers best: bright smile, sharp tongue, standing tall in a discount dress ready to fight off hellhounds and tax collectors to get the night she’s earned. Ready to be a champion.

_Yeah, Xander, you know me so well._

“Xander?” Dawn tugs him forward. “It’s time, yeah?”

He nods and follows, moving further down the canyons of their wrecked hometown. He thinks about his life and the lives of all the Sunnydale kids who didn’t make it past the town line – and the lives of those who did. He thinks that maybe they were always going to die fighting evil, no matter where they ended up. So dying back here, fighting with Buffy and the gang to keep Sunnydale safe one last time, maybe it’s not so bad.

_Get ready for your big night._ _It's going to be perfect._


End file.
